My First Unplanned Trip

It was on 30th May 2015 and while I was working, I was thinking where to go on a two-day vacation. 31st May to 1st of June is Vesak Day, a holiday in Singapore. I messaged a friend if she wants to go with me to Desaru (the nearest place in Singapore to Malaysia). She said yes. Then, another friend messaged me what would I do on a holiday and replied her that I am going somewhere with a friend and asked her if she wants to go. That unplanned trip settles into three traveler. But before everything else, I informed them that this is a bit of adventure trip. We will go there without a hotel accommodation. One is a bit of hesitant. She wants everything settled before we go.

Though I did not follow her, I still search for a place to stay without booking it. That’s the place that we are going. I told them that our budget for this trip is SGD50 for 2D1N, including accommodation, food and bus fare.

We meet in Bugis at 7:00AM for a bus from Queenstown to Larkin Terminal. We are on time and everything was so smooth. There was not much outgoers (or so we thought) at that time. We arrived in Larkin Terminal at around 9am. We waited for Mara Liner to open for a bus directly to Bandar Penawar. It opened at around 10:00 and the problem? The bus will leave at 1pm!

We booked the ticket anyway. It costs us MYR9.00 (USD2.15) each.

But then, waiting for 3 hours is something that we cannot wait. We decided to go to Kota Tinggi instead and take a bus from there. The guy from Mara Liner told us that there will be a bus from Kota Tinggi to Bandar Penawar leaving at 12noon.

We booked another ticket from Larkin Terminal to Kota Tinggi for MYR5.80 (USD1.40). We arrived in Kota Tinggi at around 11am. You have to book the ticket on the second floor of the terminal, for Mara Liner as well. When we went up, the guy told us that the bus will leave at 1:30 but I told him that the guy from Larkin Terminal told us that the bus will leave at 12noon. He took his radio and called someone. He then said to us that if the bus from (somewhere) is not full, then it will drop in Kota Tinggi to fetch us, otherwise, we have to wait for the 1:30PM departure, which that bus came from Larkin terminal itself. The ticket cost MYR5.60 (USD1.40). There are also taxis in the terminal which will cost MYR45.00 (USD11.00)

Oh well, I cannot be pissed off even though I wanted to, because I did not research in the first place about bus timing. At around 12:10, a bus stops with a sign to Bandar Penawar and I ask the assistant driver if we can get in to that bus. He took our ticket and said yes, and so we settle the 12:00noon bus departure.

From Bandar Penawar, we took a taxi to Desaru Holiday Chalets and it costs us MYR25.00 (USD6.00). It was at the end of all the resorts in Desaru.

We cannot find a building inside, much more a chalet. I asked one of the clothed seller inside and she told me to ask the in-charge.

We saw the in-charge near the exit and the man told us that all the chalets are under renovation. They closed the dormitory as well and for the meantime, they are not accepting guest for accommodation. Die! I kept my cool and smiled to my two friends who, one is frowning. But when I heard the news, I was like, “Yes! The adventure begins!”

We were walking under the heat of the sun, me and the other one enjoying, one is frowning, haha. There are a lot of something like resorts but be careful not to go inside, some is already private, and one that we (I particularly because I checked inside) is a police station. There were chalets and motorcycles and me, wearing a bonnet came inside, shouting “Hello!” as if I am in a movie. Oh, I had a good time here. Two guys went out, took their motorcycle and rode towards me. I stopped where my two friends can still see me. I was smiling at them (though I felt a little scared), and asked if this place is a resort. They said that it is a police station and they escorted us going out to the area.

We passed Pulai Beach Resort, Lotus Desaru and Desaru Golden Beach Resort and they are all fully booked. This stretch of beach only has those resorts unless you go further and asked to locals. I wanted to stay to find another resort but my two friends wanted to go back to Kota Tinggi. It’s already 3pm. I called the taxi that just dropped a passenger in Lotus Desaru and told him to go Kota Tinggi. I sat at the front and talk to the driver. I asked him if he knows a resort where we can stay for a night. He said there’s one further down, around 20 minutes but he is not sure if it is fully booked or not. We can try if we want. One of my friend insisted to go back to Kota Tinggi while the other one is neutral. I told them that since we are already here, we might still try to check. It was a quiet journey then.

The road was awesome. Only our car was traveling and we saw monkeys beside the road. You can only see bamboo trees and monkeys and the long road. And for about 20 minutes, we arrived in Bayu Balau Beach Resort, I went down and let the taxi and two friends wait for me while I was checking the reception if they have vacancy. And we are so lucky that they have. We talked to the driver that he can fetch us up the next day at 12noon. We paid MYR25 (USD6.00).

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The reception agreed that we will get the chalet rather than the dormitory since there’s only a three of us. They also have a family room which cost MYR220 per room per night (USD53) while the chalet for 2pax is MYR120 (USD29). I told her about our “budget”, that is why she agreed. So nice of her. I told her that we don’t need an extra bed, we will just move the bed to make it a king bed. She gave us the key and we are a happy kid, haha.

Children’s Playground

More chalets.

Small boats

Jumping for happiness:

Family fishing:

Now, they have a good day!

It’s getting dark and quiet now.

Under the bridge:

Who don’t love having fun?

After some afternoon fun, we took our dinner with a small restaurant outside the resort premises. We had some wine in our room which we transfer to our water bottle so that we wouldn’t be hold in the immigration. The room was full of laughter that night. I told them if they want to join with me for sunrise watching and it should be very early. One said yes and one said she will sleep.